A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging (collecting wild plants and pursuing wild animals). Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change were displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world.

Hunter-gatherers have faced numerous challenges in the twentieth century. They have struggled for survival in the face of expansion of state systems, multinational corporations, and individuals who were anxious to exploit their lands, labor, and resources (Burch and Ellanna 1994; Burger 1987; Leacock and Lee 1982).

Hunter-gatherer, also called forager, any person who depends primarily on wild foods for subsistence. Until about 12,000 to 11,000 years ago, when agriculture and animal domestication emerged in southwest Asia and in Mesoamerica, all peoples were hunter-gatherers.

As nouns the difference between foraging and hunting is that foraging is the act of searching for food while hunting is chasing and killing animals for sport or to get food.

The Neolithic Revolution involved far more than the adoption of a limited set of food-producing techniques. During the next millennia it transformed the small and mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that had hitherto dominated human pre-history into sedentary (non-nomadic) societies based in built-up villages and towns.

Revolutions do share common features, however. One is that they are fast-moving. In a short time, often just a few years, a revolution can bring about significant change and upheaval. Most revolutions are driven by people and groups inspired by hope, idealism and dreams of a better society.